Trade Between the EU and the rf Has Dropped to a Historic Low

At the end of 2025, trade between the European Union and russia fell to its lowest level in recorded history. Compared to the fourth quarter of 2021 – the last full quarter before the start of russia’s full-scale aggression against Ukraine – mutual trade fell 5.4 times, or by approximately 81.5%.

Between the first quarter of 2022 and the fourth quarter of 2025, EU exports to the rf fell by 61%, while imports from the rf plummeted by 90%. russia’s share in the structure of the European Union’s exports decreased from 3.2% to 1.2%, and in imports – from 9.2% to 1.0%. Thus, russia has effectively lost its status as one of the key trading partners of the European Union.

Europe is currently recording a steady trade surplus with the rf. In the fourth quarter of 2025, the EU’s positive balance amounted to EUR 1.5 billion. For comparison, in the second quarter of 2022, the EU’s deficit in energy alone peaked at EUR 42.7 billion. By the end of 2025, this figure had fallen to EUR 3.3 billion as a result of the oil embargo, a sharp decline in russian gas supplies, and lower energy prices.

As of today, trade between the parties is limited to a narrow range of items. russia receives from the EU pharmaceutical products, certain types of machinery, and plastics– goods that either fall under humanitarian exemptions or are not included in the sanctions lists yet.

The loss of civilized markets, reduced access to European technologies, investments, and financial infrastructure are gradually narrowing the opportunities for modernization and long-term development of russia’s economy.

The reorientation towards alternative markets does not compensate for the loss of the European direction in terms of the quality of partnerships or the volume of capital and technological cooperation. In the strategic perspective, this means for russia a deepening of structural isolation and growing dependence on a limited circle of countries, which does not replace full integration into the global economy.

For Ukraine, the reduction of economic ties between the EU and the rf is an important element of sanctions pressure, which reduces the aggressor’s financial resources to continue the war.